Two sisters and two foreigners were arrested on Friday in Nairobi CBD as part of an intelligence-led operation to bring down a phone theft syndicate.
The DCI detailed in a statement that its operation on the syndicate of four began with the arrest of two Ugandan nationals in the CBD after detectives trailed them.
The foreigners were accused of stealing phones from Nairobians and passing them on to two Kenyan sisters who run a shop at Munyu Business Centre.
At the time of her arrest, one of the foreigners had 13 phones believed to have been stolen.
Following the arrest, the two foreigners were grilled, leading to another operation at the shop at Munyu Business Center.
According to DCI, police discovered one of the sisters at the shop where stolen phones were received before being shipped out of Kenya.
“After a brief but detailed interrogation, the miscreants hurriedly led the detectives to a fourth suspect waiting for the package destined for Uganda at the Simba Coach bus station.
“The detectives from the elite Crime Research & Intelligence Bureau based at the DCI Nairobi Regional Command have cast their nets wider for more suspects in what is believed to be an elaborate syndicate sneaking stolen mobile phones to neighboring countries,” read the statement in part.
According to the DCI, phone snatchers had adopted the strategy of shipping the devices outside the country because they were frequently apprehended through phone tracking.
Shipping the phones outside of the country also makes recovering the stolen phones more difficult.
